The second time Xhemin woke up was even worse than the first. The windows in her room were wide open and it breathed a cool wind from the outside, the curtains flew like auroras in the sky. She took a moment to look at the dancing curtains in her window and decided to close it. The night was rough, and she had a rough time sleeping.
It was halfway through the night and a few hours of not very restful sleep was totally frustrating. After closing the window, she sat back on her bed and grabbed Cryzer and hugged the stuff to her chest heavily. She caught a glance of the clock in the nightstand, it was past eleven in the evening—almost midnight.
Midnight.
The word struck to her and fragmented images of the Moonlight Mirror swirled in her mind like photographs strewn on a floor. The images dissolved into feelings, the way she felt whenever Darryl was around, his skin felt against hers, his breathe to her ear, then tumultuous emotions that made her swallowed hard. Her desire was to see him, will the moonlight mirror allow her to see him?
"Is he even my soulmate?" She said weakly to herself.
She knew how crazy the Midnight Mary ritual was—thanks to Ziggy's constant accusation that she missed that Lagdameo coach—her eagerness to try the ritual just became irresistible.
"Crazy, this is crazy!" She said to herself as she stood from her bed and walk from one corner of her room, then back and forth.
There was just something. Something about the Moonlight Mirror that drew women's desire of romance. Apart from the fact that she was kind of lucky to know that the mirror was just on the first floor, in the main hall to be exact which was very accessible to her, the curiosity of trying out a legendary ritual was something one cannot just easily brushed off.
Xhemin frowned slightly at her own idea "This is not a right. I am not going to do it!"
She threw herself back in her bed and rolled to the right where she saw the golden candlesticks in her bedside table.
Candlesticks.
In most of historical movies, women used candlesticks when doing the Midnight Mary ritual. The view of the candlesticks just teased her interest of doing the it!
"God!" She cried out to herself and poked her head "Xhemin, you are not doing the Midnight Mary!"
She held a deep sigh while lying down and remembered her conversations with the gorillas this afternoon. When she opened about the Moonlight Mirror, all turned out against her as Ziggy endlessly teased her about trying the Midnight Mary at the same time frightening her about summoning beast. She did regret opening about the topic as she rather thought their vcall was just wasted, with Ziggy not wanting to stop bubbling about the legend of the Moonlight Mirror and about Xhemin's stupid fantasy.
Xhemin tried to glue herself to bed, afraid her feet will protest against her. She forced herself to sleep and tried to suppress her outstanding desire to do the ritual.
However, all her attempt and effort to control herself were a complete failure because few minutes after, the Little Missus was already at the foot of the bifurcated stairs, holding on the golden candlesticks in her hand. Of course, she had lighted the candle, to give more drama to her foolishness.
The first floor was dark and empty, apart from the shinning decoratives that glowed like diamonds. The Little Missus dragged herself to the main hall, on her white long night gown and her ebony hair that blended in thoroughly with the darkness that succumb around her. Her face was lighted with the candles she was holding in her right hand, the little fire obediently swayed on her motion.
She was very careful not to make any sound, afraid she will wake up someone in the first floor. She wondered why all the lights were off in this part of the mansion and also regretted bringing a candlestick when she had kept a flashlight in her room.
Soon, she found herself in the main hall and in front of the enormous Moonlight Mirror. Her reflection glowed like porcelain doll before an empty dark background. If one will see her at the moment, they might be terrified just like how Dr. Cyan did when she found her at the barn.
She stood there for few minutes, waiting for the clock to strike twelve as she glanced once in a while on her wrist watch.
Seeing herself in the mirror gave her chills and the back of her hair stood up seemingly afraid of something so suddenly which confused her. She knew that she was the only living thing roaming around at this hour of night, but why did it seemed that she was not alone?
Suddenly Xhemin felt a little terrified. Didn't Ziggy warned her about summoning a beast?
"Shit!" She cursed herself as she clearly did not consider the idea that she might summoned a beast tonight rather than seeing her soul mate. Also, will her soul mate be the Lagdameo coach? What if someone else will appear tonight? Will she be ready for it?
A feeling of doubt came rushing in the girl's heart that made her started breathing really hard. The clock advances to midnight and her heart beat was rapidly, increasing as each minute past. All of the sudden, her feet were cold and soon her whole body was, it was only this time that she appreciated bringing with the candlesticks, as the little fire kept her face warm.
She waited and waited till the clock strike twelve. She held a deep sigh and calmed herself before she started the ritual.
"Midnight Mary" The words barely come out her mouth and her mouth went dry.
She swallowed a deep breath and spoke again.
"Midnight Mary" Even though she was almost whispering, the words still filled the place.
She was about to recite the last words but all the doubts and fear filled her that made the girl want to run on her feet back to her bedroom. She regretted coming here, but then, as though she didn't want to finish what she started, her mouth opened involuntarily.
"Midnight Mary" As soon as the words came out, she closed her eyes in an instant afraid that she might not be able to bear what will happen next.
She froze her breathing aggressively and closed her eyes tight. She wanted to run but her feet seemed to have stuck in the floor. Different emotions came rushing in to her that almost made her scream, but she forced herself to endure it all.
Soon, as the girl was about to lose her breathe, she let go of it. She took a deep one and noticed that there was nothing unusual that transpired after she finished the ritual. She opened her eyes slowly and saw nothing but herself, her skin as white as a tissue paper, holding on to the candlesticks.
She sighed in thorough relief.
"Fake" she murmured while gasping some breathe. Indeed, the legend was fake.
She calmed herself down and wiped out some sweat that rolled in her delicate face with her empty hand. She was about to turn and head back to her room when she heard something.
"Tip" the sound of a light footstep broke all of Xhemin's sanity in an instant. She instantly raised her eyes to the mirror expecting anything but there was none.
"Tap" Another footstall made her lungs stretched anxiously. The sweat that she just wiped off earlier came in double and were slowly flowing in her head down to the side of her cheeks.
Xhemin wanted to run, for God knew how she extremely regretted the idea of doing the silly ritual, but it was all too late now. The empty dark background in the mirror suddenly formed a silhouette that the girl dreaded to see.
All her hopes fell, and her body trembled tremendously at the sight of the horrifying entity at her back.
" Be–beast…"